Macmillan Cancer Support is urging all Westminster parties to prioritise cancer ahead of the next general election and commit to ensuring all cancer patients are treated with the highest levels of dignity and respect in their manifestos. The charity is also calling on parties to support NHS staff to deliver this aim.

At the event, Nick Hurd was presented with a copy of Macmillan’s briefing paper – Dignity must not be denied: putting cancer patients at the heart of the General Election 2015 – which outlines the current issues with cancer patient experience and Macmillan’s proposed solutions for addressing them. He also met people affected by cancer who were able to outline their own experience and why being treated with dignity and respect is so important to them.

Macmillan believes that every person diagnosed with cancer should be treated with dignity and respect throughout their cancer journey. However, the sad reality is that many people have a poor experience of care as shown in the results of the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey.

The survey provides insights into the care and treatment experienced by cancer patients in 155 NHS Hospital Trusts across England. Last year’s results shows that some patients:

• Are not being asked what name they want to be called by
• Report that the people treating and caring for them are not always working well together
• Are not being given written information on their condition or their operation
• Feel they are not involved in decisions about their treatment.

Speaking on the subject, Nick Hurd said “All cancer patients in Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner should be treated with dignity, respect, care and compassion. The vast majority of NHS staff work incredibly hard caring for and supporting cancer patients. However, the quality of patient experience is clearly lacking in some cases. Macmillan’s campaign aims to drive improvements in care and I am very proud to support it. The time is now to prioritise patient experience in the NHS.”

As we approach the General Election 2015, Macmillan is also calling on political parties to commit to deliver cancer outcomes that match the best is Europe, and ensure that everyone at the end of life is given free social care to support them to spend their final days in their place of choosing.

Nick Hurd MP from Northwood, Pinner and Ruislip is supporting the Workplace Challenge 2014 programme to encourage constituents to lead healthier and active lifestyles.

Workplace Challenge is an initiative targetting businesses and employees throughout England with the goal of getting more people active and launches during the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on July 23rd.

The 2014 challenge comes just as more worrying statistics connected to the negative impact of inactive lifestyles emerge. A recent report by the All-Party Commission on Physical Activity set out a clear case for tackling what it calls ‘the growing physical inactivity epidemic’ in the UK.

The free online public platform www.workplacechallenge.org.uk will reset its leaderboards at 8pm on 23rd July, enabling the public to start logging activity to compete for local and national prizes as individuals, whilst also contributing towards a workplace tally.

Members of the #TeamEngland squad will set mini public challenges throughout the four week challenge period and organisers hope that the public will then keep logging until the New Year – the time when life changing resolutions traditionally kick off.

As part of the logging process people will be encouraged to complete a very simple health questionnaire allowing the British Heart Foundation to research the impact of the programme in changing the activity and health habits of the public.

The campaign is delivered by the County Sports Partnership Network in conjunction with the British Heart Foundation Health at Work team with funding support from Sport England.

Since the launch of the platform in January 2014, over 15,000 people have joined up, logging over 390,000 hours of activity. In some areas, 43% of those registered were classified as ‘inactive’ prior to registering. The platform captures the motivation of social influence and workplace camaraderie to encourage people to lead more active and healthier lives.

Nick Hurd MP said: “ I am delighted to support the TeamEngland Workplace Challenge. It is really important that MPs and constituents sign up to make a change and recognise the tremendous benefits that a healthy and active lifestyle can bring to people as well as their workplaces, driving wellbeing and productivity.”